As this has been a topic at Bloodless before, I thought it worth finally noting the official end-of-2005 tallies:
The Department of Defense this week announced the Army missed its fiscal 2005 recruiting goal by more than 6,600 soldiers, bringing in 73,373 new troops over the last year.
The Army National Guard, Army Reserve, Navy Reserve and Air National Guard also all missed their recruiting goals, each pulling in less than 90 percent of their targets.
On the positive side, the Marine Corps, which had missed several monthly recruiting goals earlier this year, reached its year-end enlistment goals. So did the Navy, Air Force, Air Force Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve.
The article goes on to note that the news is even worse, as the Army had to raise the maximum age, and lower the education standards in order just to miss the goal by 6000 or so (less than 10 percent).
They may do well for the next year (Recruiting was better than expected for the first month of the new year), but how much do you want to bet they lowered the bar, and are looking for fewer recruits?
I'll be curious to see what the actual numbers are in a few months.
Posted by baltar at November 16, 2005 10:57 PM | TrackBack | Posted to International Affairs | Iraq